


The Evil Pieces

by tutu10



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Dark Arts, Dark Magic, Death, F/M, Harry Potter Next Generation, Hogwarts, Homophobia, M/M, Original Character(s), Slytherin Albus Severus Potter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:21:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24363466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tutu10/pseuds/tutu10
Summary: If you could learn dark magic, would you use it for good or be consumed by its power?Albus Severus Potter never had friends, even his family doesn’t really like him. Then, he meets Scorpius Malfoy, the most hated person in school and his world changes for better. Now he has someone to share secrets, practice dark spells and to call a friend.Moving on to fifth year, things start to change. As students get murdered, people blame Albus and Scorpius and Albus starts to question his friendship, the dark arts and whether it is worth saving people that have been bullying him for years.This is not a cursed child compliant, but I took some ideas from it.
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter
Comments: 9
Kudos: 41





	1. The Whiskey Incident

Albus Severus Potter sat on his bed as he turned the pages of a book without paying much attention to its content. He had already packed his stuff in the trunk and was waiting for James to be ready. His older brother had always taken a long time to get ready, their hair was just like their father’s, it got messed easily, only James cared, Albus didn’t.

"Albus!" His mom called him from downstairs.

He got his stuff and went to the living room, where everyone was waiting for him. Lily, his younger sister, was playing with her hair, while James seemed very excited telling their father for the hundredth time about how well he did on quidditch on his first year on the team. Like his father, he was a seeker.

“Albus,” she passed her hand through his thin hair. “I’ve been calling you for ten minutes.”

“Sorry, I was reading,” she nodded and smiled.

“You’ve been very distracted lately, Albus.” His mother gave him the concerned look he was so used to. “I know you’re nervous but remember that no matter where the Sorting Hat sorts you, we’ll still love you.”

“When you and dad say that, it’s like you don’t think I’m good enough for Gryffindor,” he said loudly, without thinking.

The room went silence.

When he got the letter, his brother teased him about him getting into Slytherin. His parents made sure there was nothing wrong with being in Slytherin, but whenever his mother’s family came to diner, they would remind him about Evil Slytherin.

He didn’t really get along with his cousins, nobody said anything mean directly to him, but he could tell their interaction with him was different than with his brother and sister. There was even one time he heard aunt Hermione and Rose talking bad things about him.

“Really Rose? I expected more from you,” they were in the kitchen and Albus heard them because he decided to go to his bedroom, since his cousins didn’t let him play quidditch with them. “Try talking to Albus, you two are going to be in the same year and Ginny said he also read Hogwarts: A History, you two could talk about that.”

“He’s just always been weird, mom, but after what he did –” he didn’t want to hear any more of that conversation.

He opened the door of his room to find Whiskey, the family cat, sleeping on his bed. He sat by her side and pet her on the back. He tried not to think much about the conversation he just heard, he decided a while ago not to care about his family.

He preferred the company of books, they were much nicer than any of his cousins. When he got back from Diagon Alley, he immediately started devouring them, he wanted to learn spells, but his dad never let him practice because minors were prohibited to use magic outside school.

Because of this, he decided to try doing potions. He did the ones that needed ingredients that were easy to find and asked his mom to buy the ones he couldn’t find at home. She didn’t seem to suspect anything.

He needed to test the potions, so he gave them to Whiskey, and kept a parchment with all he observed from the experiments.

One day, his sister opened the door as he was writing on the parchment. Whiskey was just sleeping from the sleeping potion, but Lily saw the cauldron and thought he killed the cat. He tried to explain to his parents that he was just trying to learn potions before classes started, but they just grounded him anyway, and soon, all his family knew what happened, and Weird Al was even weirder.

Though, he found funny that his dad took Whiskey away from him, but the cat kept coming back to sleep on his bed.

“Al, we said the same thing to James, and we’ll say the same thing to Lily,” his dad was the first one to speak. “Because we really mean it, just because we were both from Gryffindor, doesn’t mean our kids have to be.”

“I know dad,” Albus looked down his shoes. He didn’t like how he acted when he got angry, but he couldn’t control it.

“Come on, everybody, get your stuff.” His dad made a signal to everyone follow him.

They got to the station quickly, his grandfather had lent them his flying car, so they didn’t need to apparate, since Lily always got sick when they did it.

The platform was so full, he had to ask all the time for people to let him pass. They saw uncle Ron and aunt Hermione. Behind them he could see Rose and Hugo and the rest of his family behind them.

“If you go to Slytherin, we’ll disinherit you,” Ron said to his younger son, Hugo, even though he had two years before he would go to Hogwarts.

“Ron!” Hermione poked his elbow, as if she was telling her husband “Albus is right here!”

Albus tried to sneak in the train, but his mother gave him a disapproval look. While she talked to them, his dad turned to him.

“You’ll be alright Al,” his dad put his hand on his shoulder. “I know it seems like your whole life depends on the house you are sorted into, but it doesn’t.”

“I don’t care if I don’t get sorted into Gryffindor.” It was the first time he admitted, even to himself.

“You don’t?” His dad had a surprised look on his face.

“No, actually, it would be nice to be away from them,” he said, looking at his cousins.

“Is this about the cat?” He had a very serious look on his face. “You understand why we had to ground you? It was dangerous you could have – “

“Even when I get upset about something completely unrelated you have to point out something you disapprove in me.” His family stopped talking and looked at him. “That’s the problem, I’m always guilty of something, nothing I do is ever good enough for this family.” He got his trunk. “You know what, I hope I don’t get sorted into Gryffindor.”

And got on the train as his mother was telling him to wait.

He took a deep breath when he entered the cabin. He chose one that his family wouldn’t be able to see him. Then, opened Hogwarts: A History but got interrupted. There was a boy in front of him, his hair was blond, almost white, he had an angular face and was holding the potions book, the same book he got in trouble for.

“Hi,” the boy seemed shy. “I’m Scorpius, and you are?”

“I’m Albus.”

The boy nodded and turned his attention back to his book. Normally, Albus would let him read and they would never speak to each other again but there was something interesting about a boy who read textbooks before classes, just like himself. He wanted to know more about him.

“Have you read page 25?” he cursed himself, it felt so weird trying to make friends, Al never had one, so he didn’t really know what to say.

“I did, actually I just started reading it again,” Scorpius looked at him, now he could see the blue in the boy’s eyes. “Dad says I need to study before school starts, so I get ahead of homework, he even taught me some charms.”

“My dad didn’t let me practice any charms; he takes the laws way too seriously.”

“I can teach you one if you want to.”

Albus nodded. Scorpius got his wand and stayed still, as if he was trying to concentrate.

“Dad said it’s the first spell we’ll learn.” He pointed to a piece of paper over his book. “Wingardium Leviosa.”

The paper started to float and did the same movement as Scorpius’ wand. Albus opened his mouth, he remembered his father telling about the spell, aunt Hermione was the only one in class to get it right the first time they tried.

“Now it’s your turn,” said Scorpius.

Albus took a deep breath, his hands were sweating, so he wiped them on his clothes when he got his wand. Maybe he was worried about what Scorpius would think if he did the spell wrong.

He pointed his wand at the piece of paper.

“Wingardium Leviosa.” He closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes. Nothing happened, and he looked down his lap, he didn’t want to face Scorpius.

The blonde boy lift Albus’ chin up.

“That’s okay, Albus,” Albus looked at his eyes, they were grey, which Al thought to be an unusual eye color. “Keep your eyes open, concentrate and say it again.”

Albus said it again and the paper levitated as he moved his wand.

“I did it.” He said way too excitedly.

Scorpius was smiling. “You did it.”

“Thanks.”

“Your welcome.”

The boys spent the rest of the trip talking about the spells they wanted to learn.

The sky was dark when they got out of the train. Hagrid, the professor of care of magical creatures and a family friend, called the first years, since they would be going by boat, unlike the rest.

“How are you, Albus? Everything alright with your father?” said Hagrid as Albus entered the boat with Scorpius.

Albus nodded, it was that kind of question people always expected you to say yes.

“I’m so nervous, my whole family has been in Slytherin for ages,” he gesticulated. “I don’t think Dad will be happy if I don’t get in.”

“In my family most people ended up in Gryffindor and some in Hufflepuff, although to be honest it would be nice to be in a different house from them.”

“Maybe you could go to Slytherin and keep me company.” He smiled at him.

Hogwarts was more beautiful in real life than in pictures. Albus had been dreaming for this day for so long that he couldn’t contain his excitement when he entered, he started to say various curious facts about the school to Scorpius, and the blonde boy said some facts his father had told him.

They were waiting behind the door of the great hall.

“Are you Potter?” Someone pocked his back and he turned around.

It was a brown-haired boy, much taller and bigger than him, and he had a half smile on his face.

“Yeah.” He expected some people to recognize him right away, James looked like his father, despite the red hair, but Albus was a carbon copy of him.

Maybe the boy was waiting for him to continue the sentence, because he continued looking at him like he wanted his soul. Then, another boy that had brown skin and was shorter than Albus put his arm around the taller boy.

“I’m Zack Lundman,” he shook Albus’ hand. “This is Harvey,” Albus shook Harvey’s hand. “When I heard Harry Potter’s son was going to be in the same year as me, I got very excited, really, your dad is a legend.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Albus murmured.

“And you are?” Zack shook Scorpius’ hand.

“Scorpius.”

“Scorpius who?”

He looked down. “Malfoy, Scorpius Malfoy.”

“Really?” Zack lifted his eyebrows. “Al, can I call you Al?” And he continued speaking before Albus could answer him. “I think you have to choose well who you are friends with.”

“I can choose my friends on my own, thanks.”

“Sure, you can, it’s just that being friends with the son of a death eater is not very wise,” he said. “But anyway, nice talking to you, and Scorpius,” he looked at Scorpius with a smirk. “Nice nail varnish.” He said out loud the last part and some people looked at Scorpius and laughed.

Albus hadn’t notice Scorpius’ nails, but he thought the nail varnish suited him, thought he had never seen a boy wearing it.

Scorpius was looking at his hands.

“So, you’re a Malfoy?”

“I am, and you’re a Potter?”

“I am.”

“It’s okay for you, I mean, being friends with a Malfoy?”

“Only if you teach me more spells,” Albus and Scorpius smiled at each other.

“Deal.”

He looked over Scorpius’ shoulders and saw Rose, she was alone and was looking down her feet. For a moment he wanted to talk to her, but then he remembered what she said to aunt Hermione and decided not to.

The door opened as Hagrid’s enormous figure appeared in front of them.

“It’s time, kids.”

He couldn’t see the ceiling of the great hall, just like the book described. It was dark and there were a few stars. Then, he saw the candles illuminating the hall and the decoration, which had Gryffindor colors. The house had been winning the house cup for five years straight and last year’s achievement was due to his brother winning quidditch cup on his own.

After the sorting hat sang, it was time for the sorting.

“When I call your names, walk slowly and sit here on this stool,” said Neville. “Aasen, Christine.”

“Hufflepuff.”

“Carter, Rachel.”  


“Gryffindor.”

And the sorting went on.

Zack and Harvey were sorted into Gryffindor.

“Malfoy, Scorpius.”

The room went quiet, until someone screamed “death eater”.

“Quiet!” said McGonagall, the headmistress.

The hat stayed on his head for a few minutes, some people started to whisper things about Scorpius’ sorting, but Al didn’t understand enough words to make a sentence out of it.

“Slytherin!” Scorpius seemed relieved.

Some more people were sorted.

“Potter, Albus.” Neville smiled at him.

As he walked towards the stool, his heart started beating faster. His dad said the house you are sorted doesn’t matter, but he disagreed with him, it can define the friendships you make which can influence your grades, your future jobs and even your love life, not that he thought much about that last one yet, he was only 11.

“Oh, I see,” said the hat. “Seems much like your father but different at the same time, more ambitious but not as courageous as him and definitely very different from your brother, where should I put you?” The hat seemed to think. “Slytherin!”

The room went quiet once again and as he walked to the Slytherin table, he heard people whispering things like “a Potter in Slytherin?” or “that’s impossible”. He looked at the Gryffindor table and his brother had an ugly face.

He sat very happy next to Scorpius.

Rose was the last one, sorted into Gryffindor.


	2. This Bathroom Was Not a Good Idea

The Slytherin common room was cozier than Albus expected, the sofas were comfortable, and the green light and stone walls gave the room a sophisticated look. The dungeons were tiring to get to, there were a lot of stairs involved, but he didn’t mind it.

He was thankful there were two beds per room, he didn’t know anyone in Slytherin besides Scorpius, and he thought he was lucky enough making one friend, lightening doesn’t strike the same place twice.

“Albus,” Scorpius snapped his fingers in front of his face.

In the day of the sorting, his nails were white, but today they were green and silver, he must have done it before Albus woke up. He had just finished drinking his orange juice and was ready to get up from the table.

Albus was holding a toast, but it seemed like a few minutes had passed since he picked that up, because when he bit it again, it was stone cold. He frowned his eyebrows and left the rest of it on the plate.

“Are you alright?” Scorpius gave him a concerned look.

He thought about his family, about what had happened yesterday. The day after the sorting, Scorpius woke up early to write his father a letter, telling him the big news and his first impressions of Hogwarts. Albus didn’t think he could do the same, at least not for a while.

“I am, just got distracted.” He gave Scorpius a smiled. “What’s the class now?”

“Charms,” Scorpius looked at the clock across the Great Hall. “And we better go, it starts in 10 minutes.”

Professor Flitwick like most professors, taught his father when he was in Hogwarts. They all seemed to analyze him, and he wanted to ask James if he felt the same way but was too proud to talk to anyone from his family after what happened at the platform.

“This is the first spell you will learn,” Flitwick was holding his wand ask he spoke, almost like a conductor leading an orchestra. “Win-gar-dium Le-vi-o-sa,” he said slowly.

A few people repeated after him. They were sharing this class with Gryffindor, so he could see Rose sitting three tables away from him. She was facing her table; her red hair was covering her face and didn’t seem to be paying attention to what Flitwick was saying.

“Who is she?” Scorpius looked at the same direction as Albus. “Is everything ok with her?”

“My cousin, Rose.”

For some reason, Albus didn’t want to say much about Rose, he felt like if he told Scorpius about how his cousin appeared to be sad since they got in Hogwarts, he would try to befriend her, and step Albus to the side. As much as he hated to admit, Rose was more intelligent than him, maybe even at the same level as Scorpius.

“Now it’s your turn,” said Flitwick. “Get your wands and try to levitate the feather on your table.”

Albus and Scorpius were the first ones to try it and get it right. Flitwick clapped his hands and gave 5 points to Slytherin. Al looked at Rose, she got it right the third time she tried. Surprisingly, Harvey did it before Zack Lundman, who was struggling, and asked Flitwick for help.

The class was over. Albus turned around to the door, but stopped, once he realized Scorpius wasn’t walking by his side. He saw him walk towards Rose and followed him.

“Is everything ok, Rose?” Scorpius put his hand on her table, she still had her head down.

“Yes, yes,” she raised her head to face the blonde boy. “Wait, are you–”

“Scorpius Malfoy.” He tried to shake her hand.

“I know who you are.” Her voice had a bit of bitterness behind it, but Albus didn’t think Scorpius noticed.

“So, Albus and I are going to the library to study before lunch and–”

“Are we?” Albus asked, confused.

He ignored Albus. “–we wanted to know if you would like to go with us.”

“Yeah, right, who else is a better company, Nobody,” she pointed to the air. “Or the Death Eater and the cat killer?” She pointed to them.

She tapped her finger on her head, as if she was thinking.

“I choose Nobody.” She took her things and left, before Scorpius could say anything.

“What just happened?” He seemed really confused by the situation. “Did she call you cat killer?”

“Ignore her, I always do it on family gatherings.” He put his arm around Scorpius’ neck and guided him out of the classroom.

After having all his classes, Albus could say potions was by far his favorite, there was something about doing potions that made him feel like he was in control of things. Professor Slughorn seemed very excited about him and Scorpius, he would always give Slytherin points when they answered his questions.

Scorpius was the best in Charms. He did learn a lot of them before Hogwarts, but there was more to it, he was naturally talented, he knew how to position himself for every spell and how to pronounce the words right.

Herbology, History of Magic and Astronomy were boring, he and Scorpius would always write their papers together, but none of them seem to care about the subjects.

Transfiguration was an interesting one, Albus succeeded in the class, but didn’t see the point in turning a match into a needle. On the other hand, Scorpius loved it and always tried to explain to Al how important the subject would be for the future.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was not as cool as Albus thought, Professor Henri’s whole idea of teaching was for them to read the book during class. Albus liked to read, but he had already read the chapter before class and wanted to do something more practical.

Flying Lessons were only taught in first year and Albus was thankful for that. He could make the broom jump to his hand, but his ability stopped there. He couldn’t fly on a straight line and had to stop before making a curve, he almost fell the first time he tried it and was afraid of it happening for real.

People were surprised he was bad at flying, maybe because his mother had been a professional player and his dad was the youngest seeker of the century.

He thought Scorpius would be just like him, but surprisingly, the blonde boy was good, in fact, one of the best in class.

“It’s how me and Dad bond, we play quidditch and talk about Hogwarts.” He shrugged.

Albus noticed that he never talked about his mom but decided not to ask him about it.

“We have two papers due in the next two weeks,” Scorpius showed blank parchments to him, blocking his vision of his breakfast. “Hurry up, Al.”

Albus’ family thought he was bookworm, Albus thought Rose was, but Scorpius was on a whole new level. Albus wanted to finish his papers early, but he also wanted to finish eating.

“Ok, I’ll wait.”

Scorpius sat next to him, crossed his arms and shut his mouth. Albus was going to say something to cheer him up, but he saw his brother sit in front on him. Some people looked at them with curiosity, it wasn’t every day that you saw James Potter at the Slytherin table.

“Do you get happy doing this to mom and dad?”

“Doing what?” Albus drank his orange juice.

Scorpius turned his face every time one of them spoke.

“Giving them the silent treatment,” he said. “They sent me a letter telling that you haven’t written to them once since we got here, and I had to explain to them that the only thing I know about you is that you’re in Slytherin and are friends with Malfoy.”

“Well they could have written to me–” Al started to say.

“They thought you would just throw the letters away.”

He thought his brother was right, he didn’t think he would have read them, but decided to shut his mouth.

“That’s all I had to say, let’s go,” he called his friends, Albus hadn’t noticed they were behind him.

He remembered them; they had been to their house last summer. One had curly brown hair and blue eyes and was always talking about quidditch, the other had dark straight hair, brown eyes, and seemed shy, maybe his name was Charlie, but he wasn’t sure.

Defense Against the Dark Arts started to get interesting as the weeks went on. Apparently, Professor Henri liked to make them read the theory for the first five chapters, and then practice them all at once in the next three classes.

Like charms, Slytherin shared this class with Gryffindor, and the Professor loved the rivalry, because he paired people from Slytherin with people from Gryffindor to duel.

Albus was paired with Harvey, while Scorpius was paired with Zack. He looked at Rose and saw the she was paired with a girl with blonde braided hair, he thought her name was Alyssa.

“First, Christina Thompson and Todd Miller” he enunciated like it was a quidditch game.

Todd shivered when he was called. He had seen the boy in the common room, he was shorter than Christina, who was almost as tall as Harvey.

“Remember you can only use the spells you were taught in class, so don’t try to use more advanced spells, if someone does it, they will be disqualified.”

Professor Henri was marking on the board which house was winning, and in the end he was going to give 10 points to the winning house.

Todd closed his eyes and Albus knew what was going to happen.

“Mucus ad Nauseam!” Christina screamed.

Todd sneezed and everyone laughed.

“Miss Thompson, take Mr. Miller to the infirmary, please.”

More pairs dueled. A lot of people copied Christina, and many students had to go to the infirmary.

“Scorpius Malfoy and Zack Lundman.”

Albus gave him taps on his back for good luck. Scorpius turned to face Zack and bowed. Zack laughed at Scorpius’ formal dueling position, but Scorpius didn’t lose his concentration.

“Flipendo!”

Zack was knocked backwards and made a hurt face when his hand cracked.

“Excellent demonstration of the Knockback Jinx, and no sneezes, 5 points to Slytherin.”

“But you said you would give the points _after_ the dueling is finished,” said Zack.

“I know, but I have to recognize Mr. Malfoy’s talent.”

Zack made an ugly face.

“Okay, that’s it for today, we’ll continue it next class.”

The next day, Albus and Scorpius were sitting near the lake, under a tree. The blonde boy got a book from the library about the Hogwarts’ founders and was telling Albus every information that he found important from it.

“Salazar and Godric fought all the time, maybe that’s where the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor started.” Scorpius gave him a side look.

“Maybe that was when the rivalry between me and my family began.” They both laughed.

“Look what we have here, two little Death Eaters.” Zack was walking towards them, beside him, Harvey was cracking his fingers.

Zack seemed to forget that he was shorter than Albus, and Albus was rather short for his age.

“Let’s go, Albus.” Scorpius got up and took Albus hand to push him out of there.

“Scorpius, is it true what everybody says? That your real father is–”

Albus didn’t know what he was talking about, but he saw Scorpius’ frowning.

“Shut up.” Albus took his wand.

Zack gave him a smirk.

Albus pointed his wand to Zack and was going to say “Flipendo”, but Harvey was faster, he pointed to him and said “Expelliarmus”. He looked at his wand trajectory, flying from his hand to close to the lake, and Harvey took the opportunity and said “Flipendo”.

He was hurled backwards and hit his head on the ground. The last thing he saw was Scorpius, before everything went black.

His head hurt, it felt like he was waking up from a nightmare. He sat on the bed and looked around the infirmary, he didn’t know if it was day or night.

He was alone for a few minutes, but Scorpius showed up, holding a plate of food.

“I got this for you in the Great Hall, I didn’t think you would want to eat soup.” And he made a funny face.

Albus laughed. “No, I really wouldn’t.”

Since the first day of classes, Albus and Scorpius did everything together, sat next to each other in class and during meals, studied in the library and spend all their free time together. Albus felt he was the first person he could be open; they got to know a lot about each other in such a short period of time.

“What happened?” Albus put his hand on his head.

“Nothing major,” said Scorpius. “Just a concussion.”

“That seems very major to me.” Albus always got tense when he got hurt. He thought: “what if the healer didn’t cure me fully?” and “am I going to die?”.

“You’re going to be fine.” Scorpius smiled at him. “Eat it, before it gets cold.”

Scorpius changed subjects, so Albus could stop think about the concussion. Somehow, they entered the family topic.

“It happens all the time,” said Albus. “We are eating dinner, and someone comes to our table and wants to take a picture with Harry Potter.”

“It’s better than people whispering bad things about your family, I’m sure.”

“They do that to you?”

“Yeah,” said Scorpius. “We don’t get along with both sides of the war, the Death Eaters hate us because my dad and my grandparents abandoned them, and the other side hates us because, well, we were Death Eaters.”

“What about your mom? Was she a Death Eater as well?”

Scorpius stopped talking for a moment, Albus could see his eyes watering a little bit.

“No, she wasn’t.” He smiled and look somewhere else, away from Albus’ eyes. “Probably one of the few families in Slytherin that weren’t Death Eaters.”

Albus didn’t know what to say, so he just gave him a half smile.

It was his turn to change the subject.

“Do you know how to do the spell?” He was whispering. “I mean, Expelliarmus.”

“I do, Dad taught me” Scorpius faced him, his eyes had a melancholic tint. “We should talk to McGonagall; she’ll probably give them detention.”

“No,” Albus faced Scorp. “I think we should practice, learn spells before we get taught them at school.” Albus had finished his meal. “In case anyone tries to attack us again.”

Scorpius scratched his head.

“I don’t know Al, it’s probably against the rules, and we don’t have anywhere empty to practice.”

“Please, Scorp, please.”

After a few minutes, in which Scorpius seemed to be having an internal monologue, he rolled his eyes.

“Ok, we do it after the winter break, but we need to find somewhere safe, I don’t want anybody to get hurt.”

“Hey, Scorpius,” Albus smiled. “You’re my best friend.”

“I’m your only friend.” Scorpius laughed.

“That too.”

Winter break came, it was time to go home for the holidays, but all Al could think was how much he would miss his best friend. They hugged on the train station, before they both went separate ways to meet their families.

Only his dad came to pick them up. The car fly was silently, and a few times, Albus could sense his father looking at him from rearview mirror, but he didn’t look back at him. James was unusually quiet, he always took these moments to talk about how quidditch training was going, but not this time, maybe he knew what their father was going to say to Albus once they got home.

His mother and Lily were playing quidditch in the front yard. Behind them, stood a big house, made of white bricks. Albus’ didn’t feel like home, he preferred their old house, at 12 Grimmauld Place, but they moved two years ago, closer to the Burrow, so they could have more yard space to play quidditch.

He was putting his trunk on his bedroom floor when his mother called him for dinner.

“So, how was school, boys?” His father said as he put mashed potatoes on his plate.

“Trainings are going great,” James moved his hands, excited. “We’ll play against Slytherin after winter break.” He gave Al a side look.

“And you, Al?” His dad asked.

“I’m in Slytherin.”

“Your brother told us this, there’s anything else happening in your life?”

“Not really.” He looked at his food.

A lot of things were happening in his life, he could tell him about how he liked Potions, about the time he spent in the library and most important, about Scorpius, his best friend, but he couldn’t find motivation to talk to him about this things, he didn’t feel like he had anything in common with his father.

“We know you made a friend,” said his mom, she was sitting beside him and had a concerned expression.

“His name is Scorpius.” He looked at his plate again.

There was an uncomfortable silence, until his dad spoke.

“God, the Malfoy kid, of all people in Hogwarts, you had to befriend the Malfoy kid.” His dad gesticulated his hands as he spoke.

He didn’t look up, but he heard James and Lily laugh.

“Well, I’m happy for you.” His mom messed his hair. “It’s great you’ve made a friend.”

“They manipulate people, I’ve seen it, they–”

“I heard he’s Voldemort’s son, is it true, dad?” James interrupted.

“No, son, time-turners don’t exist anymore.” He took a deep breath. “They knew Albus was going to be in the same year as their son, they–”

“You are wrong dad, Scorpius is a good person, he wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.”

“He wouldn’t? Just wait, the Malfoys plan years ahead, the Malfoy kid will–”

“HIS NAME IS SCORPIUS.” He hit the knife and fork on the plate.

He left the table and went to his room, hitting the door behind him.

He ignored his family the next day. He only went downstairs to get food and ate it in his bedroom.

He wrote a letter to Scorpius, he wasn’t going to send it, since he said he was spending Christmas in France because his grandparents were living there, but he decided to write it anyway, thinking about Scorpius made him calm.

He slept until 5 pm, with Whiskey rolled around his feet.

“Albus, time to get ready.” His mother knocked on his door.

Every year they went to the Burrow, where his grandparents lived, to celebrate Christmas and it was always the same, everyone seemed to be having a good time, except for Al.

There was an enormous table in the yard, with a tent above it and Christmas tree to decorate. Unlike outside, the tent was warm.

Half of the table was occupied with adults, and half with kids and teenagers. Albus was squeezed between Rose and James, his brother was in a conversation with Fred and Teddy Lupin, about quidditch and girls. Rose, on the other hand, seemed uncomfortable talking to Lily about her Hogwarts experience.

“It’s really great, everything I wished for, the classes, the people–”

Albus knew she was lying. Rose was miserable at Hogwarts, she didn’t meet anyone in her year, and he knew she wasn’t happy with her grades, they weren’t horrible, but they so far had been average.

After they ate, it was time for the presents, they all sat around the Christmas tree. As usual, his grandmother gave each one a sweater, his mother and aunt Angelina had helped her knit them, they were too many people in this family, and she was getting old.

“One more for my collection.” Uncle Ron said sarcastically, and aunt Hermione slapped his head.

Then, the parents gave their kids' presents. James got a new broom, Rose got a coloring book, Fred and Roxanne got gloves and scarfs from the Holyhead Harpies, which made his mother tear a little bit, and Dominique got a pearl neckless that was her mother’s. But the night’s highlight was Teddy Lupin, who got on one knee and asked Victoire to marry him.

Albus thought his parents wouldn’t give him anything, and he didn’t care, AT ALL, but when he was ready to stand up, his mother came to him with a huge package.

He opened and inside was a snowy owl. It was beautiful.

What name would he give her? Whiskey II, no, that was a stupid name.

“When I went to Hogwarts, I got a snowy owl, her name was Hedwig, and she was my first friend.” His dad put his hand on his shoulder. “Maybe this will cheer you up about sending us letters.”

Albus was angry, an owl wouldn’t change anything that happened yesterday, but he didn’t demonstrate it.

“Thanks, dad.” He murmured.

Before he realized, he was back in the Hogwarts train, he chose the same cabin as the first time.

Scorpius was quiet, he had only spoken a few words with Albus and then went back to his book, about the Hogwarts' founders. He glanced once at Albus, and he saw the sadness in his eyes, he wanted to help his friend, even if he didn’t know what had happened to him.

He looked at his nails, they were the same color as pine trees’ leaves and had snowflakes on them, except the middle fingers, a ‘S’ was painted on the right and a ‘M’ on the left.

“I like your nails.” Albus coughed, making Scorp face him.

“Thanks, my mom did them.” Scorpius looked at his own nails. “She’s better at painting nails than I am.”

“I think you’re also really good at it.”

“Thanks, but you should see her paint, she’s the real artist.” Scorpius smiled. “How was Christmas at the Weasley-Potter family?”

“Chaotic.” Both boys laughed.

Since coming back from the break, they basically lived in the library. All classes had a bunch of papers, except for Flying Lessons, in which Albus would have preferred to write papers.

They didn’t have time to even search for places to practice and this was making Albus nervous.

“The forest?” Albus asked Scorp.

“No, it’s dangerous and prohibited.”

“A classroom?”

“No, we’ll definitely get caught.”

Albus took a deep breath and threw himself in bed.

“We’ll have a place after the quidditch game.” Scorpius was writing a letter to his father. “I promise I’m looking into it, just have to know is it’s safe.”

“Do you want to go to the game?”

“Obviously.” Scorpius made a funny face.

“You know Slytherin will lose, right? My brother always wins.”

“I know, but it will be fun, trust me.” Scorpius went to the Owlery to send the letter.

Albus had written his parents once since he got to Hogwarts, the only time he would go to the Owlery was to feed his owl, who was still nameless. Scorpius said that he didn’t want to help him naming it (HER, Albus reminded himself), he thought it was a huge responsibility.

The day of the quidditch game came.

At breakfast, everyone seemed tense. Even though Slytherin hadn’t won Gryffindor in years, their rivalry was always present.

As his brother entered the Great Hall, gryffindors clapped and tried to give him high-fives. He didn’t seem to care, and it made Albus jealous. How could he be so confident? He carried the team on his back, and it didn’t make him nervous. Whether it was quidditch with their family in their front yard or at Hogwarts Quidditch Cup, his semblance stayed the same, calm and with a beautiful smile.

“Al, I want to get good seats.” Scorp took his hand, guiding him out of the Great Hall.

Scorpius had painted his cheeks with the Slytherin colors, green and silver. He wanted to paint Albus’, but the brown-haired boy refused.

“Give it up for the Slytherin team!” The right side of the pitch screamed.

Scorpius stood up and cheered.

“And now give it up for the champions, five years in a row, the Gryffindor team!” The right side of the pitch went crazy.

Albus recognized the voice, it was James’ friend, the one with curly hair.

He didn’t understand much about quidditch, he couldn’t even follow what the commentator was saying. The only think he understood was the point table, and Slytherin was losing badly, Gryffindor was 50 points ahead of them and it was only the beginning of the game.

Not long after, James caught the golden snitch, which was received with furious screams from the Slytherin crowd.

Scorpius didn’t scream, he just clapped his hands for the Slytherin team and said it was a good game.

Sometimes Albus couldn’t believe his luck, he had found a friend just as weird as him.

They were in the library. Scorpius was finishing writing his paper for Herbology. He always took longer to write than Albus because he wanted it to be at publishable standards, his words, not Albus’.

“You promised you would show it to me, Scorp.”

Albus was dying to know the place Scorpius found for them to train, but the blonde boy kept postponing it.

“Scorp? Scorp?” Albus tickled his year and Scorpius laughed.

“Ok, ok, let’s go.” He got his book, parchment and feather. “You’re so annoying.”

They went upstairs to the second floor, and Scorpius stopped at the door of the girls’ bathroom.

“We can’t go in there!” Albus said.

“Shhh,” he looked at both side of the corridor. “Round glasses.”

Albus was really confused. He was pushed into the bathroom and closed his eyes, expecting to see girls in there, but the only person he saw was Scorpius, opening his arms to show the space.

“We can’t be in here, Scorp.”

“Why not?”

“It’s the girls’ bathroom.”

“There’s only one girl in here, and she’s dead.” He made the ‘ooh’ sound. “This is where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is located.”

Albus opened his mouth, but no word came out.

“Then why nobody is here?” He finally asked.

“Because of her.” He pointed at a girl (ghost girl), brushing her hair on top of one of the cabins. “She doesn’t let anyone in here.”

Albus’ dad had told him about the Moaning Myrtle, but he never thought he would see her.

“How did she let you in?”

“It took a little bit of convincing,” Albus remembered his dad saying, “they manipulate people, I’ve seen it”, but pushed this thought away. “Also, I mentioned you are Harry Potter’s son, and she got very excited.”

Albus didn’t understand Scorp’s tone.

Then, Scorpius whispered on his year. “She had a little crush on him.”

“Ah.”

“Now we only need to say the password and this place is ours.” He opened his arms again, as if that bathroom was a museum.

“Are you sure this is going to work?”

Scorpius just nodded.

It did work, kind of. The bathroom was a little cramped, but they made it work. They always went there before dinner.

Scorpius taught him many useful everyday spells, that he unfortunately wouldn’t be able to use at home. They practiced the spells they were taught in Charms and in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Finally, after a few weeks, Scorpius taught him Expelliarmus, the Disarming Charm. He put Albus in the position, told him how to move his wand and how to say it properly.

“Now, disarm me.” Scorpius said. “1, 2, 3, go.”

“Expelliarmus.”

Scorp’s wand flew across the bathroom and he clapped.

Albus bowed as if he was an actor in a play. “Thank you, thank you.”

That night they also practiced two charms they were only going to learn in second year, the Dancing Freeze Spell and the Engorgement Charm. They laughed when they made an ant dance on the floor.

They stopped when they heard someone entering the bathroom. Scorpius pushed Albus to a cabin and they got over the toilet lid.  
It was a girl, she was sobbing.

Albus opened the door a little bit. It was Rose, she was washing her face on the sink. He looked at Scorpius and covered his mouth so she couldn’t hear him laughing. Scorpius didn’t find it funny; he waited for her to leave and opened the door.

“Should we go after her?” Scorpius looked at the bathroom door.

“No need to, she’ll be fine, my whole family is here to comfort her, let’s go get dinner.”

In the last dinner in the Great Hall, people seem to be upset about going home, and Albus felt the same way. He wouldn’t miss the anxiety of finishing papers or being nervous for a test, but he would miss Scorpius, his best friend, and all the moments they had that year.

Gryffindor won House Cup; his family was still cheering at the table. Slytherin was third, he and Scorpius had gotten a few points, but it didn’t matter, they lost all quidditch games and had to rely solely on Professor’s points.

Albus’ got good grades in all subjects, except Flying, that he almost failed. Scorpius got excellent grades and topped their year.

The next morning, after breakfast, Albus and Scorpius got their trunks and got in the carriages, they were going to Hogsmeade, where they would take the train.

They sat on the same cabin as always. They both had opened their books when a Ravenclaw boy entered, accompanied by two friends.

“Max, I told you, he does look like Voldy.” They pointed to Scorpius and laughed.

Albus took his wand but was stopped by Scorpius.

“Be careful, Jake, Traitor Potter will whip your ass, just like he did to that gryffindor.” They laughed more.

Scorpius looked at his nails. They had snowflakes in them, but their lines were not as clean as last time.

After a few minutes Albus broke the silence.

“Why does everybody keeps calling you Voldemort’s son?”

Scorpius took a deep breath.

“It’s an old rumor.” He faced Albus, his eyes had that sadness again. “My mom suffers from a blood curse.” He looked down. “If she had kids, her body would get weaker, so the rumor says that my grandfather used a time-turner to go back in time so Voldemort could impregnate her with a powerful heir, one that wouldn’t suffer from the blood curse.”

“That’s ridiculous, my dad says time-turners don’t exist anymore, they were all destroyed.”

“I know, but people believe in what they want to believe.” Scorpius looked at his hands again.

“Your mom had you, so her body got weaker?”

“It did, she’s in and out of hospital.” He cracked his finger. “Well, now she’s more in than out.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I don’t know, but people say that when they see someone suffering.”

“They do.”

They turned their attentions back to their books.

They hugged when they got out of the train.

“The summer is really long.” He stopped hugging him. “We should write to each other and maybe you could go to my house sometime?”

He looked at James, he was making a sign for Albus to follow him.

“I don’t know, but I’ll ask my parents.”

“Great.” Scorpius smiled.

A man who had the same hair and eyes as Scorpius put his hand on his shoulder. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, although his robes were impeccable.

“This is Albus, my friend.” Scorpius smiled at his father.

“I heard a lot of things about you.” He shook Albus hand. “How is your father?”

Before he could answer him, James walked towards them and pushed Albus by his arm.

“I’ll write you.” Albus turned around, to face James.

“Wait.” Scorpius touched his back and Albus turn back to him. “I know what name you should give her, Snowflake.”

"You said it was a lot of responsibility to give her a name."

“I know, but if I don’t, the poor owl will remain nameless.” They laughed.

As Albus followed James, he turned his head the same time as Scorpius, and they both smiled at each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for first year. The next four chapters will be like this, one for each year in Hogwarts. Only in 5th year the real plot starts. I hope you like it and feel free to comment! :)


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